﻿This study sought to examine whether pressure from China’s dynamic, yet repressed,
civil society had any impact on the Chinese state’s anti-corruption strategies. It was discovered
that online activism in China has been on the rise in recent years, and this activism has been
working in tandem with the government to monitor public and private corruption, exposing
numerous cases online. Increasing trends of online activism seem to be leading to an augmented
government anti-corruption strategy that is sensitive to issues exposed on the Internet and to
public opinion. As the government sought to shore up its credibility, it was able to harness this
wave of public participation to work towards its own ends.
Recent reforms in China have attempted to institute public surveillance and monitoring as
a central part of the government’s anti-corruption efforts. By illuminating the changing
institutional design of the anti-corruption agencies within the Party and the government since the
1990s, this study found that the most recent campaign to rally pubic participation was sincere as
the goal of clean government and limited corruption benefit both the government and Chinese
society. However, the current anti-corruption regime still has engrained problems and conflicts
of interest. Until public surveillance is fully developed and there are more democratic checks
and balances, this study does not predict that corruption will be eliminated in China in the near
future.

Degree

Master of Arts in China Development Studies

Subject

Corruption - China.

Dept/Program

China Development Studies

DC Field

Value

Language

dc.contributor.author

Vaughan-Albert, Megan Kate.

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dc.date.issued

2011

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dc.description.abstract

﻿This study sought to examine whether pressure from China’s dynamic, yet repressed,
civil society had any impact on the Chinese state’s anti-corruption strategies. It was discovered
that online activism in China has been on the rise in recent years, and this activism has been
working in tandem with the government to monitor public and private corruption, exposing
numerous cases online. Increasing trends of online activism seem to be leading to an augmented
government anti-corruption strategy that is sensitive to issues exposed on the Internet and to
public opinion. As the government sought to shore up its credibility, it was able to harness this
wave of public participation to work towards its own ends.
Recent reforms in China have attempted to institute public surveillance and monitoring as
a central part of the government’s anti-corruption efforts. By illuminating the changing
institutional design of the anti-corruption agencies within the Party and the government since the
1990s, this study found that the most recent campaign to rally pubic participation was sincere as
the goal of clean government and limited corruption benefit both the government and Chinese
society. However, the current anti-corruption regime still has engrained problems and conflicts
of interest. Until public surveillance is fully developed and there are more democratic checks
and balances, this study does not predict that corruption will be eliminated in China in the near
future.

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dc.language

eng

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dc.publisher

The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)

-

dc.relation.ispartof

HKU Theses Online (HKUTO)

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dc.rights

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.